The Power of the Gods

The journey to his room had been surprisingly straightforward. Gideon kept his word and led him directly there with little issue or hesitation. In fact, outside of humming here and there, Gideon had stayed completely quiet the entire way, leaving with nothing but a nod and a smile that didn't even try to reach his eyes.

The room itself was large but lightly furnished. Outside of a desk, mirror, table, and wardrobe there wasn't much to speak of. It didn't feel like a room that would belong to the leader of an entire religion but Simon ultimately blamed himself for expecting too much.

The wardrobe contained several pieces of clothing, most coloured in the familiar white and red that seemed to represent the colours of Hethoria, though there were a handful of purple pieces hanging alongside them. The desk had a chair and basic writing implements, a few pieces of parchment with a quill and ink. The bedsheets were similarly plain, outside of a few streaks of red creating an inconsistent stripe pattern, there wasn't much to note about the bed, it wasn't particularly comfortable either.

With so little to do, the next hour seemed to crawl by. Attempting to avoid getting caught within thoughts of the day again, he instead attempted to take a short nap. Unfortunately the sole window in the room was quite particularly placed to shine light directly into his eyes, so that proved a fruitless endeavour. His few options exhausted and his excitement to test his new magical potential at a fever pitch, Simon ultimately resigned himself to playing with his necklace and staring at the ceiling blankly.

All this meant that when Sonia knocked on the door he positively sprung out of the bed, rushed over to the door like a man possessed, and opened it with a vigour that left Sonia staring at him with eyes so slightly wide that he imagined it was probably her version of shock.

"Right, magic training yes? Anything I need to bring? No? Great, let's go!" Simon sprinted out the door, adroitly moving past Sonia and swiftly making his way outside to the courtyard. Broken out of her temporary stupor, Sonia quickly fell back into step beside him, acting as if her composure hadn't broken for a second.

"Yes, the training will be taking place in the courtyard." She paused briefly, then added "Are you sure you won't be wanting water or a drink before we begin? Magic can prove rather more exhausting than one might think My Lord."

"Nope, not me. Who needs water, anyway, I'm sure magic will give me all the water I need."
"I- I don't believe that's how magic works My Lord"
"Oh? Well, working thirsty it'll have to be then."
"But My Lord-"
"First order, just let me try some magic already. I'm sure a bit of thirst won't kill me."

Simon didn't turn around but the quiet was deafening. He half expected Sonia to grab him by the shoulder and pull him back by force, scolding him for not taking the gravity of the situation into full account. Instead she simply replied "Very well, Sir Simon" and didn't speak until they found themselves once again in the courtyard.

It was still only early afternoon, the sun hanging high above their heads, vibrantly illuminating the courtyard. However vibrant browns and greys could be considered at least. The area had been cleared of trainees, starkly contrasting with how lively it had been earlier. A few arrows embedded in targets, and scraps of hay piled beneath the training dummies were all the evidence they had been here till recently.

"Are you prepared to begin Sir Simon?" Sonia asked, having sat at a table next to the stairs.

"I've been prepared for hours. So how are we starting? Tearing apart space, teleporting?"
"I'm afraid that's beyond our abilities as of the moment. We'll be starting with an explanation. You'll be lucky to cast anything today at all."
"Wait really? Can't I just feel it and 'tada' something happens? Or is it an incantation sort of system? Runes?"
"I can't pretend to understand what you're saying, but I must insist that we start here lest you risk hurting yourself, and lest you misunderstand the fundamental source of the power you'll be wielding."

Simon let his shoulders droop but knew better than to argue. Sonia was the teacher in this situation and he still barely understood a thing about this world. She'd treated him well and been far more patient than most would be. It'd be better not to offend her or risk whatever she's so afraid of than needlessly run headlong into the fire. He walked to the table and sat in the chair opposite her, ensuring to lean forward and communicate his full attention.

"Then let us begin. I hesitate to ask such a potentially offensive question but given what gaps in knowledge you've displayed I must know, how much is it that you understand about the Gods?"

Simon paused, he'd started to piece a few things together up to now but it was very scarce pieces of information here and there. The information he had was filled with holes and wouldn't hold up if he ever needed to call on it.

"Not much really. Didn't even know the Goddesses name till you mentioned her. Best I've got is that Varok's her - our - rival, but that's about it."

"You are correct on that point but it's far too vague. I shall start at the very beginning then. Please listen carefully. When the world was birthed, thirty all powerful beings were born alongside it. These beings came to be known as the Gods. They would shepherd humanity through it's earliest years, granting us the most basic technologies and gifts ensuring we survived in our lowest of days."

She paused a moment to look into his eyes, ensuring he was still attentive. Satisfied, she continued.

"Eventually, people came to worship these Gods for their gifts, seeing them as divine saviours that would guide them to salvation. But this worship did not come equally, these Gods had different domains of power and so different personalities - some were fickle and some were generous. The gifts they would provide were varied in nature and in strength, and they were never afraid to play favourites with those they deemed most worthy." She cleared her throat.

"It was around this time that the Gods discovered the nature of faith. As their followers and their fervour grew, so did the God's strength. What had once been a group of thirty equals quickly developed its own castes, and eventually some of the strongest Gods grew to see little value in their weaker kin. These Gods attacked a gathering of those ranked among the lowest in their pantheon, destroying them and seizing control of both their magical domains and many of their followers."

"Are you following so far? Do you have anything you would like to ask?"
"No, it makes sense I think. The Gods were born, helped humans, then started getting powerful through human faith, and so they started to fight for more of that power."
"That's right so far, yes. Let us continue then."

"There were four dead Gods when the deed was done. Yet the four that had killed them found themselves depleted of power. They needed time to slowly regain their strength through the faith of the followers, if they did not have it they would find themselves open for attack from those in lower castes of the pantheon. So they tried to hide the truth, claiming that they had disappeared, gone on a journey to far off lands in search of more followers of their own."

"All the other Gods, who had never known conflict before, believed them as they saw no reason to lie. All of them but one that is. The God of Tricksters, Florient, knew what it meant to lie more than any other, and so he saw the truth for what it was. So it was that he went to his fellows and told them the horrifying truth. Some struggled to believe him at first, but he slowly won them over to the truth. And so, with the remaining Gods gathered, the four perpetrators were themselves killed in turn. Twenty-two Gods remained."

"Could you pause there for a second actually?" Simon interrupted. "Florient was the name of the chapel's former God, right? The one that Gideon worshipped."
"That is correct." If Sonia was disgruntled at being stopped mid story, she did not show it.

"So if he's the former God here, and seems like a good guy if his actions speak for themselves. Wouldn't the chapel's switch up mean that Hethoria attacked him? Feels a bit immoral to follow her if that's the case."

"In this case, it was Florient who attacked Hethoria, he was stronger and assured of his victory, but his domain of trickery proved weak against Hethoria's knowledge, leading to his defeat. Florient was the last God to die, only four years prior to now. Hence why we own this territory now, and why Gideon converted to our faith. If you'd like to know more about Hethoria's nature, you will certainly be given the opportunity to learn first hand as her Knight."

"Alright, that's it for now, keep going please."

Sonia thought for a moment, attempting briefly to recall where she had last paused. "The Gods had united, but once the allure of power had made itself known, there was no hiding it again. However, having learnt that their powers would be depleted when in conflict in their realm, they started to gift their followers some small portions of their power, bit by bit increasing both their fervour and their military might. Eventually they begun to use them as proxies against one another. They would wage war, destroy the followers of another faith, and consequently weaken their God to the point that they could be defeated with near effortless work by the Gods themselves." 

"That was the beginning of the Holy Wars. In the century and a half since, the continent has been in endless war. Faiths have been dying one by one, the others protected by weak truces and meaningless promises simply to ensure they are not the next to fall. As of this moment, only twelve Gods remain, and we are the last bastion before there will only be eleven."

"In simple terms, that is all."
Simon was frozen, completely unable to absorb the information he had just heard.

"Sir Simon? Did you lose track along the way?"
"Sonia, are you telling me that this world has been in constant war for the last 150 years?"

"Yes, it has. There have been extremely brief periods of peace, but the longest was only three years long."
"In that time.... do you know how many people have died?"
"There is no clear number, the violence has been far too prolonged for that. However, we believe the number to equal roughly ninety-seven million."

Simon couldn't believe what he was hearing. At first he'd come into this world hopeful and expecting a second chance at life. Then he had been told they were in a near hopeless war against invaders from a foreign God. And now, after all of that, he had been told that, even if he were to win, he'd likely never experience true peace again. It was almost enough to make him laugh in defeat.

"Has Hethoria started any of these wars herself?"
"No. As it stands this is the fourth time we've been attacked, but we have no history of invading others."
"At least we're the good guys. That's good. It's good. I don't think I could've handled it otherwise."
"I'm glad you've understood that much. This is why your role as Knight is so integral to the effort. Our Goddess has seen fit to bless you with much of her power, to serve as a vehicle for her will in the world. If you fail, then she will die, and the villains of the pantheon will only go ever stronger."

The enormity of his role finally hit him. He was not here just to win a single war, have fun with magic and do whatever he wants afterwards. He had somehow, over anyone else, been chosen by Hethoria herself to be her champion, he had been chosen to hold the line against twelve other Gods in a war that wouldn't end until he himself was dead.

"I just have one more question Sonia. Why me, why not you or anyone else, someone who's lived here in this war their entire lives."

Sonia's expression cracked, her face honest and pained, seemingly desperate for an answer herself.

"I don't know."